


Her Mark On My Skin

by Lrabbithole



Category: The Bold Type
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-30
Updated: 2020-04-30
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:41:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23919193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lrabbithole/pseuds/Lrabbithole
Summary: Her first tattoo was a mistake, the second an inevitability. Both were part of the mark different women left in her life.
Relationships: Kat Edison/Adena El-Amin
Comments: 3
Kudos: 21





	Her Mark On My Skin

The first one was ridiculous. So embarrassing. Not something Kat shares openly. Most of the time she wants to forget about it. Something made easy by the fact that in her drunken haze she had not only decided to get an ugly tattoo but also had chosen to do it on her rib cage, high in her rib cage, pretty much one inch away from her breast. 

Thanks to that, the tattoo was covered most of the time; so much that sometimes Kat has to go out of her way to look at it to remember she has it. Kat also counts her blessing that at least she had the good sense to not get it on her lower back. 

She hadn’t thought much about that first tattoo. She was in college, intoxicated by the sudden freedom that being apart from her parents brought. For the first time, she didn’t have to justify every single decision, she didn’t have to sit each day with them to share her thoughts and process her feelings. For once, she could just feel and do without being overanalyzed. 

She was also intoxicated by something else, besides freedom. It was a mix of cheap booze and the magnetic carefree personality of her best friend. Thinking back about it, Kat was now sure she had some kind of feelings for the beautiful red-headed woman she spent most of her freshman year hanging with. But back then, she didn’t recognize it. 

Now, looking back, it makes more sense to Kat why when her friend said “Let’s get a tattoo”, she immediately said yes. The idea of sharing the experience with her, bringing Kat a giddiness, and excitement she had never experienced before. When they got to the tattoo shop, the fact it was her friend’s boyfriend, an apprentice that was going to use them for practice, crushed Kat more than she was willing to admit, but not enough to not go ahead with the plan. 

Ten years later, with Adena’s lips softly grazing the already fading letters, Kat lets herself remember those feelings she had repressed then but that now she is happy to embrace. 

“I had no idea you had a tattoo, my love,” the air leaving Adena’s lips with every word tickles Kat’s skin. She smiles, before answering. 

“It was a drunken mistake,” Kat says looking down at Adena. Their eyes meet, and it’s not long before their lips find each other, if briefly. Adena, it’s soon busy tracing other parts of Kat’s body. The tattoo momentarily forgotten by her lips now busy on Kat’s neck.

“I like it.” 

Kat considers making a joke, saying that she knows Adena loves her neck. But she knows that’s not what Adena means. 

“You do?”

“Well, the tattoo sucks.” Kat burst out laughing. It really does, but she didn’t expect Adena to be so blunt. She is usually more into subtleties, her words almost poetry. “But it’s unexpected. And all tattoos say something about us. About our own history.”

There’s the Adena I know, Kat thinks before answering.

“I guess it does. I think I would like to get another one. One I really think about and choose carefully, not like this one.”

“Something in mind?”

“Oh no, I’m not making the same mistake twice. This one I’m really going to think about.”

“As long as it comes from your heart it won’t be a bad choice. But I get it.”

“I think something to represent change. I don’t know what. But I’ve changed so much in the past year. That seems like something worth remembering. Maybe in purple or the bisexual flag colors. That was a big part of me finding myself.”

Adena smiles, and nods. “That sounds perfect.”

Adena jumps from the bed, practically skipping around the apartment, fully naked, without a care in the world. Drawers keep being open and it’s obvious she is looking for something. Kat has no idea what. The squeal Adena lets out after she finally finds whatever it is she needs, it’s the most adorable thing Kat has ever seen. 

Soon, Adena is back in bed, beaming at Kat with a pen in hand. 

“Babe, wh..” Kat can’t finish talking because Adena is grabbing her hand and taking the pen to it, concentration filling her eyes. Kat tries to figure out what she is doing, moving her head from side to side to get a better look, but she can’t make it out. Soon, it’s obvious even if she wasn’t looking at it upside down, Kat wouldn’t be able to understand it. 

“It’s that…Persian?”

“It is. It means change.”

“Wow” it’s all Kat is able to say. 

“You don’t have to get it. A tattoo is something really personal and I wouldn’t want you to get something you don’t absolutely love again. But you can have fun with this fake one for a couple days while you decide what you want.”

Kat doesn’t need to think about it. Looking at it, and at Adena. She knows it’s perfect. It represents everything that has made her life different, and better. Everything she would want to remember forever no matter what. 

“I do love it.”

The ink from the pen Adena used to write didn’t have time to fade. The next day it had turned into a permanent mark on Kat’s body. As permanent as the mark Adena had left in Kat’s soul.


End file.
